Evaluating Movement Power: Initial Concepts and IndicatorsSocial Movement Learning Project

American Evaluation Association ConferenceNovember 1, 2018

Innovation Network

• Us, in a nutshell. We seek to make evaluation accessible to everyone in the social sector by being a friendly expert, collaborating, sharing ideas, and building knowledge and practice.

• We are committed to social good. We contribute to social good through use-driven, actionable, high-quality research and evaluation that leads to improved programs and policies.

Innovation Network is a nonprofit evaluation, research, and consulting firm. We provide knowledge and expertise to help nonprofits and funders learn from their work to improve their results.

Social Movement Learning Project

• Develop knowledge about how philanthropy engages with, supports, and evaluates social movements

• Design more useful and appropriate planning and evaluation tools and approaches

• So that more funders can support movements

Guiding Questions

How do social movements relate to activities such

as organizing and advocacy?

How do you know that a movement

is successful?

How do social movements relate to activities such

as organizing and advocacy?

How do you know that a movement

is healthy?

Research Base

• Over 50 conversations with funders, movement-builders, and evaluators

• A review of 80 articles from academic and practitioner sources

What do funders need?

Better movement literacy to help them gain clarity about how movements are distinct from other types of social change and to understand the range of actors, strategies, and tactics that are typically deployed during the different stages of a movement.

Information about the spectrum of opportunities to support movements, and tools and metrics to help them plan, identify, and justify support for a wider range of movement strategies.

A new frame and measures to assess the success and progress of movement activity to help them justify and maintain long-term support to social movements.

Agenda Review

1. Social movement theory of change

2. Existing evaluation guidance

3. Power-building concepts and indicators

What are social movements?

7

Story

Strategy

Structure

Dominant

systems, norms, worldviews

Civic

Institutions

MediaBusinessJudiciary/

Courts

Political

Movement Vision

Toppling, transforming, and/or absorbing the institutional,

cultural, and social pillars that prop up the status quo.

Movement Capacity

Laying the foundation for

a healthy movement.

Social Movement Theory of Change

Influencer

Power

People

Power

Institutional

Power

Narrative

Power

Movement Power

Building four types of

overlapping power.

Institutional Power Power over visible decisionmaking

Definition: Power to influence and change the who, how, and what of visible decisionmaking.

Visible decisionmaking: Contests over interests that are “visibly negotiated in public spaces with established rules.”*

Indicators:

1)Mutuality between movement actors and visible decisionmakers.

2)Decisionmaker decisions/actions are aligned with movement goals.

3)Movement actors and affected communities are authentically represented in decisionmaking processes, structures, tables.

*Just Associates.

People PowerPower with the general public

Definition: Power to build, mobilize, and sustain large-scale public support.

Passive Public Support: Public is supportive of the movement cause but not taking action.*

Active Public Support: People who are willing to take action on behalf of the movement.*

Indicators:

4) Active public support: Members of the public participate in in-person and virtual movement actions.

5) Active public support: Members of the public contribute financially to movement actors and actions.

6) Passive public support: Members of the public are supportive of movement goals.

*Engler, Paul & Sophie Lasoff. 2017. Resistance Guide: how to sustain the movement to win.

Influencer PowerPower with Influencers

Definition: Power to develop, maintain, and leverage relationships with people and institutions with influence over and access to critical social, cultural, or financial resources.

Influencers can include social and cultural influencers, e.g., business, philanthropy, nonprofits, cultural and social institutions, celebrities. Target influencers may change depending on the movement.

Indicators:

7) Influencers contribute and leverage cultural resources in support of the movement.

8) Influencers contribute and leverage social resources in support of the movement.

9) Influencers contribute and leverage financial resources in support of the movement.

Narrative Power

Definition: Ability to transform and hold public narratives and ideologies and limit the influence of opposing narratives.*

Public narrative: “A story that, when told in many different ways, can shift public consciousness and change what is possible.”*

Indicators:

10) Issue coverage (“hits”) in mainstream, ethnic, and niche media sources increasinglyreflects worldview, framing, and/or messaging aligned with the movement**

11) Issue coverage (“hits”) in mainstream, ethnic, and niche media sources decreasinglyreflect worldview, framing, and/or messaging in opposition to the movement

12) Influencers promote movement frames and messages.

13) Members of the public support worldview, framing and/or messaging aligned with movement goals.

*Narrative Power and Public Narrative definition from Grassroots Policy Project.

Power of Social Movements Framework

What is it?Evaluation framework and indicators for understanding and assessing how social movements build power.

How could I use it?• To evaluate the power-building of a grantee

portfolio or grouping of movement actors.

• To reflect on and better understand how movements build power to make change.

• As a source of ideas for metrics and types of information to collect.

What is the unit of analysis?• Whole movement.

• Network or grouping of actors within a social movement.

What else should I know?• Not for evaluating individual movement actors.

• Not for evaluating movement capacity.

Join Us!

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2

3

Vet concepts and indicators

Develop measurement approaches and examples

Test the Power of Social Movements Framework

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